Butchers To Discuss Retail Meat Prices

Northern Advocate, 15 July 1949, Page 4

Butchers To Discuss Retail Meat Prices

One of the subjects to be discussed at a meeting of Whangarei butchers next week will be the uniformity of retail prices during the September-October-November de-control period when the restrictions on the retail price of meat will be relaxed. Wholesale and retail price orders issued in February stated that, the controls would not apply for the three-monthly period when the retail price of meat will probably rise in accordance with the higher prices paid by butchers for stock.

Inquiries made at Whangarei this morning indicated that meat prices are not likely to rise to any great extent as the Master Butchers’ Association is anxious to prove to the Government that no controls are necessary to ensure a fair and uniform retail price for the consumer. Butchers stated that, as many farmers are holding fat stock with a view to getting good money for beasts in the spring months, there is a possibility that sufficient fat stock will be available to avoid the usual sharp upward movement in prices paid to producers. This, it was pointed out, was a matter for conjecture, but the view was held that beef prices would probably not rise to the same high levels as last year. COVER costs. At Auckland yesterday the president of the Auckland Master Butcher's' Association (Mr 11. C. Bridges) paid that the effect of the indexation would be. that butchers would not have to stand the crippling losses which many of them suffered during the same period last year when wholesale prices of carcases were not controlled. Because of the shortage of meat in that period butchers had to pay such high prices that they were forced to sell at a loss. It was hoped that, during the coining period, they would at least be able to cover their costs. Little, if any. margin of profit was allowed on present mutton or pork prices, and the position would become

worse for butchers if the controls were not lifted. As farmers had received such good prices for their lambs in the summer, there was now a shortage of wether mutton. LIFTING OF CONTROLS? The president of the New Zealand Master Butchers’ Federation (Mr J. W. Perry) said yesterday that whether butchers would have a case for a complete abandonment, of controlled prices depended on how they handled the situation. The system of grading meat would not be relaxed during the period when controls were lifted, he added. Emphasising the need for a decontrol period, Mr Perry said that from June, the end of the export season, until September,' stock values tended to rise sharply. From the end of the export season the retail price order tended to move in sympathy with the wholesale order, rises occurring in July and AugustStock values, however, tended to rise far above the permitted price, with the result that supplies became difficult to obtain.